Halo: The Mantle
by I'mma Genius
Summary: main crossover of Halo and Star Wars Universes, but it will take other concepts from Sci Fi shows and games. The first three chapters are going to be a timeline of 2525 to 2555, depicted the Covenant-Human War and its conclusion.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay this is set to be a cross over with Mass Effect and Halo, while taking concepts from Star Wars, and weapons from other shows and games.**

**The Technological leaps the UNSC makes isn't really that hard to believe, I mean with a captured Covenant ship its just a matter of running various electronic pulses through most of the systems, and copying them. with AI's its really not that hard to run a dozen different tests on the same vessel in conjunction, and really most of the Covenant technology is that much of a leap from the UNSC, all the UNSC is really missing is the leap from theoretical to practical.**

**Okay, I'm going through and fixing the mistakes I've wrote, I can't believe I spelt Mjolnar wrong.**

**Navigator: woops, Hardlight shielding was something I added at the end when I read another thick and thought. "Oh that'd be cool," looking back at it now I can say that it was a stupid dicision. I looked on the wiki, and Hardlight Shielding is the combination of Light and an unknown gas, probably a mix of them, to create a solid object, that glows. So its completely useless for stealth ops, and I think they'd have problems when they try and get it to work as a moving and adjusting peronsal shield anyway.**

**Hunter 63: I'm sorry you don't like it, but no I'm not going to say that an extra thirty percent of our brain makes us smarter. I've decided to give them Force like powers from Starwars with that.**

**As for Subject Jesus, what else am I supposed to liken a guy who can move shit with his mind too, and Anakin's already taken.**

**Developing too fast, dude its an interstellar war, Earth has at least five hundred planets under their control, and your telling me there exploiting that to develop technology. **

**Sgt. Rill: I completely agree.**

**Hornet07: good point on the Mjolnar, and the Midgard. and High Charity, fixing it. i thought, the more the better.  
**

**Hardlight shields, already explained.**

**I read somewhere that at Harvest Cole's fleet was constantly badgered by enemy AI attacks and the covenant turning their own AI's against them. I wanted to exploit that, but you make a valid point.**

**Because Cole's basically in charge of the War effort in the outer colonies, and while he's not in total command of the military he does have a very heavy hand at the moment with fund allocations.**

**From the Spartan II 1****st**** class they learn't a great deal about the augmentation process, and while not perfect, the volunteer ODST augmentations are a way to experiment legally before they use it on the Spartans.**

**Alec McDowell: if you've read the story info recently, then you'll see i've changed it to a star wars cross over, but I'm not sure if I'm going to mix in Mass Affect with it or have a spin off from chapter four depicting two different cross overs. Dr. Halsey, yeah, when you put it like that it's a stupid decision, I just wanted to give her the moment for a cool quote, I'll fix it when I update those chapters. Midgard, fixed.**

Chapter One: the first Decade

"_When the skies are set alight, and storm clouds fill the sky,_

_The Snakemen, Jackels, Beasts and Goblins walk the Earth,_

_They butcher, massacre, murder and burn,_

_But instead of cowering and running like their other victims,_

_they've awakened our Demons, and now they want to come out to play."_

2525

UNSC vessel on transit from _Chi Ceti IV_ carrying Spartan II 1st Class encounter and disable a Covenant Frigate, _Vessel of Truth._ The vessel is stripped of equipment, personnel and software before it is transported to Harmony for long term Study.

ONI Section Three declare the captured ship as a Covenant Pirate vessel, and the chances of further investigations by the Covenant, who ONI has determined as a hostile force that should be avoided at all cost, are low.

Project _Unveiling the Truth _begins with the study and the eventual reverse engineering the _Vessel of Truth's _technologies on _Harmony._

Almost eight months later a minor Human-Covenant Skirmish takes place on and over _Harvest_, the garrison UNSC ground forces losing the engagement, but evacuating several thousand survivors from the planet before the Covenant begin _"Glassing."_

Two months later a ONI Prowler vessel arrives at Harvest, inserting a Red and Blue Spartan teams who retrieve the experimental dual core AI MACK and LOKI. However upon retrieving the dual core AI, Spartan teams discover that MACK deleted LOKI, saving the civilian AI SIF from destruction by housing her inside the second core.

Upon return, Captain Jacob Keyes recommends the widespread implementation of similar AI's too the dual core AI containing a Military and Civilian personality. Citing the possibilities of such a technology implemented in widespread UNSC space during the predicted and fast approaching war.

Miranda Keyes, famed for her later campaign on the Forerunner instillations _004 _and _The Ark, _is born to Jacob Keyes and Catharine Halsey.

2526

Catharine Halsey has a minor mental breakdown by conflicting interests from her heightened maternal hormones from her recent pregnancy and her long term work as the founder of the Spartan Program.

Spartan Mark V armour is created, with Shields and Dumb AI capabilities from new crystal circuit technologies.

The Heracles, the _Arabia _and the_Vostok_ enter the Epsilon Indi system and make contact with a Covenant ship. The Covenant ship destroys the _Vostok_and the _Arabia_with only the badly damaged Heracles escaping. Following the engagement the Covenant glass _Espilon Alpha_, _Beta _and _Delta_; resulting in UEG officially declaring war on the Covenant and the implementation of Martial Law in Human Colonies to begin transition to wartime economies.

ONI Section Three authorises Prowler Black Operations, realising from Project _Unveiling the Truth _that the Covenant cannot detect Prowler vessels_._ Spartan team _Grey_ and _Purple _are selected for Black Operations on board Prowlers in the Outer Colonies and Covenant controlled space, one of their goals is to determine the viability of Cyber Warfare against the Covenant.

2527

Retired Vice Admiral Cole is briefed by ONI regarding _Harvest_, the _Epsilon _System and the captured covenant Frigate. As well as releasing him information on current projects of importance or with relation to the Covenant in an effort to convince the Vice Admiral to come back into active service.

Eventually ONI convinces the Vice Admiral to come out of retirement, immediately newly reinstated Admiral Preston Cole begins preparations to retake Harvest and the Epsilon System.

The fleet that Vice Admiral Cole commissions in the next three months would contain the most advanced ships currently in deployment. With over fifty Halycon Class Cruisers, six mobile repair stations, twenty Vigilant Class Carriers, eight Achilles Class Destroyers and eight Trafalgar Class Battleships fielded.

ONI determines that the Covenant is not capable of using AI technology of any level near or above the UNSC's.

Five more systems are lost to Covenant orbital attacks.

Following a briefing with ONI that validates several Admirals' concerns over system discovery via ship records, Vice Admiral Cole creates would become referred to as the Cole Protocol, a system designed to stop alien based AI attacks and the prevention of Data lifting on all UNSC technologies by destroying code and self-destructing captured AI's.

Vice Admiral Cole is briefed by Dr Halsey regarding the Spartan II's and Project Mjolnar in the hopes of requisitioning funding for expanding Shield Technology Development for Ships and ODST corps.

Dr Halsey is given a blank check for her research, on the one condition that she turns the Spartan Program into a feasible military branch.

Admiral Cole reshapes the recruitment parameters of the Spartan Program, changing the recruitment ages from six to ten – fourteen. However genetic marker requirements stay the same, along with allowing active ODST Spartan augmentations should they meet a 60% possibility of survival for the procedure. Although augmented ODST would return to their platoon, without Mjolnar Armour, as the armour was still too costly for widespread implementation.

2528

The First Fleet led by Vice Admiral Cole and his newly christened_ Trafalgar_ departs Reach for Harvest in a one hundred ship strong march.

Fleet Admiral Hood and the Rear Admiral's in charge of Second to Eleventh Fleet's (one fleet is approximately fifty ships in size) begin the development of Orbital Defence Platforms with built in reactor complexes. Research into Slipspace capable ODP begins on Harmony.

The Second Battle of Harvest begins, with One hundred UNSC vessels to approximately thirty Covenant vessels.

Sustaining approximately twenty eight ships in complete losses, however the First Fleet manage to remove the Covenant Fleet from orbit.

2529

The Covenant Fleet begin actively searching for Outer Colony Worlds, forcing the First Fleet to disperse into small groups and intercept attacking Covenant fleets.

On Reach, Dr Halsey develops the second dual core AI, ODIN and FRIGGA, military and civilian cores respectively are based on the brain scans of a husband and wife.

A total of twenty five worlds are lost, ten of them to abandonment, fifteen to the Covenant

Vice Admiral Cole commissions _Operation Payback_, a covert ONI Prowler operation tasked with finding and destroying Covenant Worlds by tracking Covenant ship's through Slipspace paths.

Spartan's earn the monocular_ 'Demon'_ when they successfully capture a Covenant ship.

UNSC Slipspace drives in the First Fleet are deemed too slow in comparison to Covenant FTL capabilities to affectively combat the Covenant Tactics.

Rear Admiral Piker begins to deploy nuclear mines around strategically important Colonies along with commissioning the development of FTL capable MAC Defence Stations.

Section Three prioritises the development of faster Slipspace technology and Early Warning Beacons.

Dr Halsey successfully augments two hundred and ten out of three hundred Spartan II candidates aged eighteen.

John – 117 is promoted to Commander.

At Chi Ceti IV research into decreasing cost of Mjolnar armour begins.

ODST squadron Whistle-blowers successfully capture a Covenant Frigate Class relatively undamaged in the Circinius System by bringing ONI Prowler, Knife of Pride alongside the vessel when it was scanning the Solar System for Human presence.

Vice Admiral Cole orders large payloads of Atomic weapons to be placed on Prowler Ships, and the ships to be stationed permanently over (hidden behind moons) Human Colonies within unprotected colonies within one hundred light-years of all known Covenant sightings.

Captain Jacob Keyes, captain of the ONI Section 3 deep space Prowler Long Solstice discovers a Covenant mixed species world.

December 25

Commander Jacob Keyes sends the Covenant a Christmas present.

2530

Research into Slipspace capable ODP's is completed and implemented, resulting in better defence capabilities for Outer Colony Planets.

Prototype Light SAS Armour is developed at CHI Ceti IV, the design incorporates nano-thread technology, something that has become easily accessible from the project _The Truth Unveiled, _and incorporates it into a light (similar to twentieth century military combat clothing) clothe. The combat uniform is fitted with weak Shields, make capable by developments in battery technology.

Prototype ODST shield armour is created at Chi Ceti IV, the armour is a hybrid metallic-kevlar-polymer hard suit designed with a HUD, tactical 'laptop' mounted on the wrist and a Jackal shield on the other.

ONI Prowler Army of the Night along with Spartan Grey team board and steal vital star chart information and the location of a popular staging area for the Covenant from a Space Station.

Captain Jacob Keyes, on board the Long Solstice destroys the Covenant station Unyielding Heirophant, along with three hundred and eighty of the five hundred surrounding ships using a combination of sabotage and SHIVA mines.

Rear Admiral Piker commissions Project Midgard, to create a line of planets between the inner and outer colonies that could serve as impregnable fall back positions for the First Fleet. Word leaks of Project Midgard, however it is widely accepted by UEG citizens and the planets are nicknamed Fortress Worlds.

Project Thunderclap is commissioned to design and creation of a Cruiser class capable of fighting a Covenant Cruiser without a tactical advantage using reengineered technologies.

Project Refit is commissioned; members of the project are tasked with turning the Halycon Class vessels into a Battleship Class vessel along with outfitting civilian ships for military use and to begin experimentation into design concepts that would provide advantages to the UNSC.

2531

Research into the development of long life dual core AI technology is completed and the integration of existing smart AI's into this system set up begins.

Three Fortress Worlds begin construction on _Paris IV, Epsilon Delta, Sigma Octanus_ and _Harmony_

Breakthrough in ship-wide shield technology

By the end of the year, six more planets are selected for Project Midgard

Monitoring and early warning stations are deployed inside the Outer Colonies.

2532

Subject Jesus is born, one of the several thousand humans born that year that utilise 30% of their brain.

Vice Admiral Cole deems defending and retaking lost colonies as well as colonies of low population or importance too costly to the First Fleet. However Cole deploys unmanned monitoring stations above the planets, tasking with sending recordings to HIGHCOM if an unknown vessel enters the system.

Slipspace message drones are developed.

Human-Covenant war turns into a battle of attrition as a new generation flood the ranks, armed with new state of the art widespread shield technology and ship-wide Shielding technology. Along with many other improvements and modifications to existing technology to way the scales of the war.

Research is completed on ODST and SAS Shield technology, the mass distribution amongst the fleet evens the playing field between the ground forces of the Covenant and the UNSC.

A third of the Outer Colonies are lost, but the amount of Spartan II's on the battle field grows as augmentation procedures slowly recline in risk.

2533

Project Thunderclap is completed, the ship class, named the Thunderclap sports a MAC mounted on the nose, a thin fifty metres long and 360 degree rotational abilities.

Mjolinar Mark VI is released, this one sporting technological improvements, integrated AI and Cloaking Technology.

With two thirds of the Colonies left, and Project Midguard halfway complete, the UNCS begins to slowly integrate the Thunderclap series into the First Fleet, although because the Thunderclap is an entirely new ship the integration process is a slow and arduous one as assembly lines are refitted with new technologies to make the ship.

Midway through the year the UNSC Spirit of Fire along with five other Halycon Class vessels respond to an unmanned monitoring station over Harvest sending out a Fleet wide alert (a protocol designed to identify large numbers of incoming vessels) and respond. Arriving at Harvest, they discover the ruins of an unknown alien instillation unearthed by the Covenant. After a month long campaign and the discovery of the Forerunner Shield and the Flood, the three ship fleet returns home, the Shield World destroyed.

2534

Subject Mary is born on Earth.

New armour series is designed for ODST, including shields, cloaking, and DUMB AI integration.

ONI Section discover the existence of the Covenant Mothership,High Charity. Vice Admiral Cole and Lord Hood are briefed on it, along with its two hundred ship guard; though they still begin to plan its destruction by the First Fleet.

However HIGHCOM deny them the go ahead, stating that should the First Fleet be lost, the battle of attrition with the Covenant would be too.


	2. Chapter 2

**I believe I have fixed everything, if not, well, I'm sure you'll complain.**

**since this is now a Star Wars cross over, I've replaced Anakin with Revan and Padme with Bastila.**

Chapter Two: The Second Decade

"_To those brave few that died twice,_

_Dared the encroaching madness, _

_Even as they pulled as from the brink."_

2535

Slipspace capability of the UNSC rises to Covenant standards.

ONI begins covert exploration and bombing missions on known Covenant infrastructure and military bases, sanctioned by Lord Hood they begin the slow destruction of the Covenant Warmachine.

Project Midgard is completed, with each of ten worlds sporting one hundred and fifty Manoeuvrable MAC's on the ground and close to thirty Slipspace capable MAC stations. The planets become a safe haven for human ships, with shipyards capable of completely refitting a _Trafalgar _class in a week, and becoming a deadly trap for any Covenant that follows a Human vessel through Slipspace.

The war slows down to a battle of attrition.

A total of 345 Human worlds have been destroyed

A total of 57 Covenant Worlds have been destroyed

2536

First recorded use of Heightened Energy abilities, Subject Prometheus, aged eleven, and part of the Spartan Program uses what will become known as passive telepathy during a mock firefight to learn and counter the drill instructors strategy.

Dr Halsey is secretly smuggled out of her prison cell to oversee Project Spartan.

When Dr Halsey interviews Subject Prometheus about his abilities, the Subject describes it as having a voice speaking to you inside your head, that sounded like Sargeant Mendez. What really convinced ONI command that it was not a hoax was that the voice was speaking in Spanish.

A further Fifty Covenant Worlds are destroyed, although none of them as important as Keyes' destruction of Unyeilding Heorophant.

Fifty Five human Colonies are destroyed, but the Covenant seem afraid to attack the Fortress Worlds.

2537

After another brief display of Heightened Energy abilities from Subject Prometheus, this time levitating a pen from the floor to his desk, she begins Project Demigod. A project focused on training, for both military and civilian use, as well as discovering the many assets of it.

A further Fifty Covenant Worlds are destroyed, although none of them as important as Keyes' destruction of Unyeilding Heorophant.

A further Fifty Five Human Colonies are destroyed, but the Covenant do not attack Fortress Worlds.

First known use of Heightened Energy abilities by Subject Jesus, aged Four, Subject Jesus panics when the car he is travelling in spins out of control, subconsciously using his abilities to slow the car down and preventing an imminent crash.

The Trafalgar II begins design, incorporated scientific and military advances from Project _Unveiling the Truth_. It should, when completed be able to replace the Trafalgar series as a Battleship Class vessel.

Human losses exceed 70 billion.

2538

The Covenant discover New Carolina, a Fortress world and the far a Covenant ship has come inside UNSC controlled space.

New Carolina is glassed after a two day battle against the culminated might of three Covenant Fleets numbering a total of Two Hundred vessels.

Subject Mary, aged four, begins to display the ability to sense and change moods.

Subject Prometheus undergoes augmentations in Spartan Program, but dies during the process. Post mortem body analysis reveals that his heightened energy abilities were actively fighting the augmentations and nanites on a cellular scale while unconscious. If this is a subconscious defence system, a fluke or error on the surgeon's part remains unclear.

2539

High Command commission the creation of more Fortress worlds between Midgard and Earth because of the high losses the Covenant took at New Carolina. Nicknamed Highguard by those involve, HIGHCOM hoped to establish ten Fortress World's in the Inner Colonies.

The Halycon Class is successfully redesigned, utilising Shields, a Honeycomb hull and armour design, a Triple Fusion Reactor core, and Smart AI compatibility.

2540

Two Covenant Fleet's besiege Paris IV and Phoenix, both of them Fortress words, but after a day long siege the Covenant withdraw.

Widespread reports of limited precognitive dreams, heightened spatial awareness, telepathy, telekinesis and subject Mary begins to develop a habit of influencing her parents emotions.

2541

Covenant successfully destroy two thirds of the Outer colonies.

Mjolnar Mark VII is completed, John – 117 is issued Cortana. A revolutionary AI that has two personalities derived from a pair of Clones of Catharine Halsey, giving it the theoretical capacity to live indefinitely.

2542

Subject Jesus is inducted into the Spartan Program, named Revan - 1035

Rumours of limited precognitive abilities, limited to vivid dreams, are confirmed by subject Revan -1035.

Rumours of enhanced spatial awareness are confirmed by Revan – 1035.

HIGHCOM and ONI designate Revan -1035 as subject Jesus, and following widespread rumours, and panic ONI publishes the findings, methods and abilities displayed by Subject Prometheus.

2543

Covenant find Harmony Fortress World, Fleet Admiral Hood engages the invading fleet with the fifth Fleet and defeats the Covenant with significant losses.

Over the next month the Covenant over the next year would throw the majority of their fleet towards the Harmony Fortress World believing it the Human Homeworld because of the presence of the Fifth Fleet, the losses they would take slowed down their war machine to a slow trot.

During the year long siege of Harmony, a scientific research world and Fortress World with over five billion civilian populace. The yearlong siege would be the first major engagement where heightened Energy Abilities are used against the Covenant to great effect in ground engagements as well as space dogfighting.

2544

_Trafalgar II_ class is completed.

The illegal and illustrious HEB Races begin, with widespread popularity over Inner Colony and Outer Colony Worlds.

HEB Races involve a group of humans with access to Heightened Energy Senses racing using whatever piece of scrap they could pull together, the races, outlawed within a year for their extreme dangers have resulted in fewer deaths than official car and plane racing circuits within its first year. Likely due to pilots spatial awareness and the subconscious defences that a HEB activates when he or she is in a crash.

Covenant find two more Fortress Worlds, the fourth and third Inner Colony fleets engage them.

Fleet Admiral Hood push's Covenant from Harmony's home system, the Covenant War machine collapsing under the three concurrent that at the end of the year the covenant pull back from the three shield worlds with a stunning six-one covenant to human ship graveyard in orbit.

Subject Mary is inducted into the Spartan Program at age ten, Bastila – 1203, she would exhibit strong powers in Telepathy and Spatial Awareness. However her fame would come from her emotion influencing abilities. Over the next four years Dr Halsey would work with her to improve her unique, among the unique, ability to the point where she could enter deep meditation and influence entire fleets to acts of bravery, while sapping the enemy of their will.


	3. Chapter 3

**I've removed 2555 from this chapter, I felt better putting it in the next chapter. mainly because I'm thinking about writing two distint versions of this. one in the Star wars universe, one in the mass affect uiverse.  
**

Chapter Three: The Third Decade

"_I found One Hundred and Twenty Nine Billion reasons not to go to war, but I also found One Hundred and Seventy billion reasons to go to war."_

2545

Completion of Highguard class Fortress World's in Inner Colonies, the Fortress World's act as both a defensive line and major shipyards.

Research into upgrading MAC stations is undertaken.

The Covenant pulls back most of their fleet, with only the First Fleet skirting minor skirmishes with them.

2546

Mark V Mjolnar armour is finished, featuring a lighter blackened tint frame, and minor adjustments to systems. As well as smaller components and a more streamlines frame.

Integration of Plasma projectors into MAC station's fails, due to the enormous amount of energy required for both to be mounted on the same vessel.

Instead research is directed towards increasing Energy output in reactors.

Paris IV, Harmony and Epsilon Delta are all besieged with Covenant again.

2547

Vice Admiral Cole begins preparations for the attack on the Covenant mothership The Isle of The Gods, which is reported to act as a repair and supplies station of the Covenant fleet, which has retreated back to it.

All UNSC ships now feature shielding technology, Covenant grade Slipspace Generators and Plasma projectors on the larger classes. While MAC's become standard bow mounted weapon on ships.

2548

Bastila – 1203 turns fourteen, and begins to exhibit romantic interests towards now sixteen, Revan -1035. Spartan Program Scientists are unsure what to make of this, since when entering the Program all subjects have their sexual drives stunted.

Revan -1035 and many of his classmates begin to show signs of puberty, and sexual interest in opposite sex. Scientists conclude that this is not a failure in the Sex Drive Suppression operations at their enlistment. But an unintended side effect of heightened Energy Senses. Dr Halsey describes the phenomenon as, "subconsciously most of the candidates want to be normal teenagers, and so their Heightened energy Sense's subconsciously manipulate the chemical's in their body to become normal teenagers."

2549

Vice Admiral Cole launches a surprise attack on the Covenant mothership, The Isle of The Gods, utilising Prowler's to deliver the experimental AI Cortana, via Sierra 117, into the mothership's systems. She renders the strategic advantage of having a mothership present on the field almost inert by disabling the Plasma BEAM projectors **(think large versions of the stargate Beam Weapons)** and destroying the Communications systems in the fleet. The ensuing battle lasted for one hour as UNSC vessels took advantage of the Covenant's disarray, their scrambled channels and their unwillingness to fire near the Mothership to destroy the fleet before turning their weapons on the Mothership.

2550

Revan -1035 survives augmentations, and is deployed on Reach to the Demigod Program to help develop his powers.

2551

Twelve months of no activity later four covenant fleets each boasting one thousand strong attacked Harmony, Omnius Epsilon Paris IV and Sigma Octanus.

The battle didn't last very long, Paris IV falling and Omnius Epsilon falling as well. Sigma Octanus didn't fall, but that was only through a combination of First Fleet's defence and the Covenant's priority changing from obliterating the humans to retrieve the ancient artefact halfway through the battle. The artefact was retrieved by Spartan Red Team, but not before the Covenant had scanned the glowing hieroglyphs on it.

Two weeks later Lord Hood was informed that there was a possibility that the Covenant had recovered scans of the Artefact, which contained coordinates for Reach and another System in neutral space.

Fearing the worst ordered the First fleet back to Harvest, replacing it with the sixth Fleet. Lord Hood ordered the First Fleet into Rear Admiral Piker's control along with thirty four of the remaining Spartans of graduating class II, with orders to investigate the coordinates in the neutral region.

2552

Fleet Admiral's Hood prediction of an attack came true, as Reach was besieged by a One thousand strong Covenant fleet supported by the mothership Illuminating Justice, of the same class as High Charity and Retribution of the Faithful attacked Reach just as Cole's Fleet, led by Rear Admiral Piker Keyes left the system for the second coordinates on the tablet.

Reach, sporting all the defences of a Fortress World and having the largest singular shipyards in the fleet, responsible for the distribution of forty percent of the Trafalgar II, Guardian and Thunderclap II vessels produced; not to mention that it was the home of the Spartan program meant that it could not be lost. Would not be lost.

However for the first day the battle above Reach was a onesided affair to the Covenant, but Bastila- 1203 utilised her emotion influencing abilities to destroy the Covenant's resolve while reaffirming Human will and giving Vice Admiral Cole a needed second wind.

The next days were spent in a tactical orbital battle of attrition and genius, the two sides fighting over the positions in the space above Reach, with numerous Covenant landings and Plasma Projectors burning roughly half the planet. Without the collective power of over one thousand planet side augmented and none augmented Spartans Reach would have been lost.

Three weeks later Cole's Fleet, under Rear Admiral Piker's, arrived at what would become known as the Halo Instillation, 004, upon which they engaged an equally strong Covenant fleet. Using the Covenant's unwillingness to damage the Instillation to great success, the First Fleet reduced the opposing Covenant fleet to a mere husk of what it had been.

After the battle the admiral ordered the deployment of ground forces upon the ring, were Spartan Red Team discovered the existence of the Flood and 343 Guilty Spark. The Fleet upon learning the dangers of the Flood distanced themselves from the Ring, while sending bombing runs at crashed Covenant and Human vehicle to prevent any from leaving.

Eventually the Spartan's detonated the Halo instillation using the Slipspace drive of a Covenant Carrier, Truth and Retribution.

Rear Admiral Piker died during the engagement, his Trafalgar II class vessel overrun by Flood, Captain Keyes, taking control of the fleet is the one to order the destruction of the Instillation.

After the battle of Halo and the battle of Reach, it came to light that the Covenant had retrieved more data from an Alien artefact buried beneath Reach, now known to be Forerunner from beneath the planet's surface. The Data placed the coordinates of Earth, and judging by their last experience with the Covenant they could expect that a large fleet would be martialling in Covenant space to attack Earth sometime in the next year.

Lord Hood ordered the Prowler corpse of ONI into Covenant space to try and find the marshalling point of the invading fleet, while also pulling Slipspace capable MAC stations back to reinforce Earth.

2553

Information of Halo and the Flood leaks from ONI, however the imminent invasion of Earth dulls the response of outcry by civilians.

On March 3rd the Covenant Forces numbering approximately two hundred in size at the edge of the Solar System. For the next two days the fleet would fight their way through MAC satellites stationed over Jupiter and Mars, and through Bastila- 1203's emotional and psychological attack. Eventually witling down to seven hundred and fifty vessels.

Into the third day of the Covenant retreated, in a rare display the remaining twenty eight ships retreated into Slipspace. And for a brief two months the Earth fortified itself, and repaired damage from the first wave. But the attack never came instead a lone Carrier class vessel appeared at the edge of the Solar system, requesting aid, saying that they had split from the Covenant.

Tentatively the UNSC greeted and began negotiations with the Covenant fraction, they revealed that the Covenant had attacked them because they thought the Gods had willed our extinction, but slowly over the course of the war a Civil War had been brewing in the Covenant ranks, the Sangheili, who died and bled to achieve the God's will and the Jiralhanae who had become the Prophets protectors in their absence. Over the course of the last twenty five years the races had become more and more disillusioned with the Prophets. Finally culminating two months ago when the Oracle, Mendicant Bias, aboard High Charity launched his Dreadnaught, destroying the mothership (HIGHCOM was happy about that).

One week after negotiations begin the Forerunner Dreadnaught arrives at earth, requesting permission to open a Wormhole that led to Instillation 000. The UNSC agree, sending the new vessel Infinity and a fleet along with the Dreadnaught to secure the Ark.

Once their Read Admiral Keyes and Vice Admiral Cole begin anti Flood operations, systematically hunting down the Flood hidden in other Forerunner instillations and killing them.

2554

Lord Hood declines the offer of joining the newly formed Species Alliance, wishing to remain independent. Though given enough time, Lord Hood hopes that the grudges of the war can be put aside in the face of new allies and friendships. But that is not this time.

Medicant Bias secludes himself into the Ark, sending these parting words to the UNSC Flagship _Trafalgar II_.

"_I have watched and waited for centuries, you know not what peace it brings me that I am able to redeem myself to my creators by saving their children… Go Reclaimer, I will wait and watch, guarding my creators last fortress, until a time comes when your survival is once again at stake."_

Attached to the message was two stellar coordinates, an expedition is being constructed to go to the first, the second however, is located in the Andromeda Galaxy.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: The Andromeda Galaxy.

"_The war taught us many things, but most of all it taught us how to take a beating," – unnamed UNSC soldier._

Following the conclusion of the Human-Covenant war, the UNSC had been reduced to one hundred and fifty planets from their five hundred and eighty one. The Covenant splinter cell, although allied in the last stages of the war during 2553 to 2555, declined rendering aid. Their resources turned to their own worlds, ruined because of ONI Black Operations and the short three year civil war.

The following year, 2556, the UNSC _Infinity, _with the Spartan battalion aboard, with the newly promoted Commander John – 117 aboard, captained by Captain Thomas Lasky, set out to the first set of coordinates.

Finding the Covenant Shield World Requiem along with the Didact, and his Promethean soldiers trapped within led to a brief engagement that was dominated by the Spartan's. Ending in the Didact's death and the discovery of the Librarian. The Librarian, who was the mastermind behind the repopulation of the Galaxy following the first Halo activation, gave Cortana instructions for performing a procedure that would allow perfect health and passively reverse human aging.

Upon return, the procedure was examined by Dr. Catherine Halsey, Head of the Spartan Operations, and foremost expert on Human augmentation and Heightened Energy Abilities. The procedure was revealed to be creating an organ by cloning, a technique long practised by the UNSC, and inserting into the place taken up by the second Kidney.

The organ was composed of entirely grey matter, which contained neural cell bodies, and passively manipulated energy in cells in the host's body. A clever concept, which increased the body's natural healing abilities, stopped radiation from affecting the body, halted and reversed the age to anywhere between eighteen and twenty-five and on top of that it allowed the development of Heightened Energy Abilities. The organ, quickly name _Ichor _for granting agelessness, spread across human space, a simple organ cloning and transplant procedure being almost illegally simple to do and the cost almost as low.

By 2560, the upgraded _Halycon_ class was decommissioned, making way to the _Marathon II, _a mixture of the _Halycon _and _Marathon's _similar designed, while integrating ship-wide shields. Four plasma Projectors on each side, one underneath the other, and utilising a Prow mounted MAC, capable of firing three quick shots in a row before powering down thanks to plasma tracks. Utilising two Triple Core Fusion reactor's that made the upgraded _Halycon _such a threat, despite its lack of Covenant technogy.

In the next two years the _Marathon II _was completely integrated into the UNSC fleet, utilising new shipyards that were based on the Forerunner Ark, and the newly created Hardlight display capability.

In 2565, the UNSC had retaken most of its former territory, while retiring the Trafalgar II; while the Thunderclap II and the Guardian gradually became obsolete thanks to the _Marathon II._

Two decades later, the UNSC discovered a wreck at the edge of the Milky Way, near the Colony world Ironhead V.

The Invisible Man, Serin Osman, had been overlooking ONI for close to three decades now. He knew all their dirty little secrets, and accepted many of them as necessary. But sometimes there was a file that was transmitted to his computer that stumped him, like the file telling her she would be taking over his mentor, Admiral Parangosky, someone she had no short amount of disagreements with over the continuation of the Spartan II and Spartan IV's. Even with the strictly intelligence and sabotage natured Spartan III's; who no one outside of the Spartan Program and herself knew about. They had even stolen their name from the old, failed Spartan III program of Colonel Ackerson.

Someone she had taken great joy in silencing when she rose to office, as a Spartan II washout, she deeply distrusted a man willing to make second rate Spartans.

But the file on her desk even eclipsed her idea of creating an intelligence division of the Spartan Corps. Who manned the _Stalker_ Class, the descendant of the _Prowler _Class vessels.

And her stumpage came in the form of a report submitted by an AI pair, ELI and EMMA, all AI' worked in gender orientated pairs now, Dual Core technology making it possible for pairs to form and even 'break up' from each other. Although the UNSC had no limitations on pairing types, as long as they worked together. Although the AI's had put their own stigma on the pairs anyway, a great many scientists liked to think that they were developing _tastes _by limiting their options.

The AI, who had been in service for twelve years now, alternating between civilian and military in short intervals, had been aboard the old _Guardian_ class ship _Independence. _A long serving ship with more history and scars from the war that gave historians the chance to launch several requests for it to become Heritage Listed.

Delusionist's, why would the UNSC turn a perfectly good, but old, ship into a decorative feature on some tour companies route. But despite its old age the _Guardian Class_ still boasted similar sensor technology to the newer models, that was the one thing on ships that hadn't improved with the war, the Covenant really sucked at sensor technology.

Those sensors, detected a heavily damaged ship on the edge of UNSC controlled space, over the glassed ruins of Biko, a small Colony they hadn't bothered to colonise yet. The ship had found the wrong end of a HAVOC mine, a space mine that detected ships and then shot towards it, detonating its nuclear ordinance on the shields and breeching anything less than a _Trafalgar III _strength shield. Which held the medal for strongest shield in the Galaxy at the moment.

It was easy to imagine what happened, somehow the vessel had managed to survive the blast, although it had split in two, and its guts was scattered across the better part of the solar system. ELI determining that from the wreckage spread the sight was roughly ten to fifteen years old.

Inside the boarding team had found bodies of above twenty different unknown Alien species, and including humans. They were all determined to be intelligent Species, and as such, designated ET-11 to ET-34, the overs where taken up by the seven former species, Promethean's, Forerunner and Flood. Then shoved in body bags and taken onto the _Independence _for ONI to investigate. The boarding team, which had taken EMMA, the civilian half of ELI and EMMA, onto the vessel, invaded its computer systems, snatching a copy of everything in its computers.

The amount of information gathered was staggering, it was clear from the data that the vessel was a scientific one, and had simply stumbled upon Biko. Of course like all scientists they seemed to not know when to stay away and going into low orbit over the glassed area. Accidently making them a target for the HAVOC mine in orbit.

The scientific vessel had come from the Andromeda Galaxy, and the information on the ship indicated that the Andromeda Galaxy was composed of a governing body called the Republic. Although little else was gleaned more than personal files, scientific theories about how the ground was turned to glass, they thought it was from a geological event, letters home and several other important things.

Although the limited weapon systems aboard called 'turbo lasers' was a plasma based weaponry that was superheated and super condensed into a short beam that dissipated into the enemy ship on impact, inflicting enormous mechanical and electrical damage. Although for a real comparison a modern warship would have to be captured at some stage.

The ship had on board some small arms weapons as well, which were there in the event of a pirate boarding party, they worked on a different principle. Creating a Hardlight projectile from oxygen and ambient light; and then heating it before firing it. Although the technology was not something that the UNSC had thought of yet, Hardlight display's, roads and bridges only being discovered in the last decade. The idea had enough merit to juggle it down to the scientists on ONI's pay role.

Regardless of the advances that would come just from this vessel, this new galaxy dictated investigation, several of the _Stalker_ class vessels and one of the Spartan III regiments aboard each boat would do, and an investigation of the Andromeda Galaxy was needed. As the capabilities of Hyperdrives and Slipspace drives were similar, the Slipspace requiring a bit more oomph, although the Hyperdrive of the Republic needed routes to be charted to stop ships from pancaking into planets.

Flicking her eyes back to report, Seron Osman took the time to reward the Captain, Commander Tark for sending her the report and no one else, as he had noted in his last paragraph. The young twenty eight year old was a bit too eager in his discovery, but that was too be expected in the younger years. He showed the qualities of a good captain, so doing just that, Seron promoted him to Captain, assigning him to the ONITask Force that would be taking the three month venture across to the Andromeda Galaxy.

Edward Siberious Tark, recently promoted Captain and the reason ten other captains and Rear Admiral Miranda Keyes were meeting in this dark room fidgeted nervously. He was the youngest here, born in 2556 in the post-war baby boom had completely missed the Human-Covenant war. secretly he dearly hoped that Second Contact didn't go that way too. It would be a pity if the strange humans (because they were completely devoid of the small part of the brain that housed the HEB abilities. Of which he had none.

Though the micro-organism found in their blood stream seemed to flock toward the Ichor organ, too bad the organ promptly smashed it too pulp when it entered the blood stream.

Still, he fidgeted nervously, one week ago he'd heard the mission brief, three months in cryo, followed by booby trap setting, stalking, and tagging every single thing they could in a different galaxy was a huge assignment. The fact that they couldn't get caught made it that much harder.

It was at that moment that Director Osman strode into the room, and the Hardlight display came to life, Déjà, the Reach AI; along with a picture of the wreck he had discovered six months previously.

"you all read the files I assume," she spoke in a clipped, measured tone, we nodded, Admiral Keyes, in her twenty year old ageless body, looked like she wanted to bite Osman's head off, "well then, I'm assigning you all to a Stalker Vessel, they've been prepped with eight SHIVA's each, along with a Spartan III team (four body), a Spartan II team (six body), and a regiment (one hundred and fifty body)."

"Spartan III's," a man off to the left interrupted, "I thought we only had two's and four's."

"We don't," Osman replied, "these are ONI's secret. Think of them as the Spartan II's of Black Ops."

The man nodded, a crisp measured response, Edward could already tell he had problems with Spartan's. A lot of people had trouble accepting them, at least now the program was treated as a extremely disciplined school, with summer breaks and the family was moved to the Planet the training was conducted on.

"What are our orders regarding contact," the admiral interjected, looking sharply at the man.

"If they contact you you're to respond, and lie," Osman countered, "we've decoded what they call basic so if you can convince them you're a trading vessel, then do so. We'll be supplying you with cargo to match that claim. But if they call your bluff your to either break off and flee, or Answer with the official first contact message and procedures. Those orders however, are subject to the situation"

"What about just destroying the vessel," grunted a man to Edward's left, "that'd solve first contact problems."

"We can't," grunted another, "we don't know who's the who in their Galaxy, we can't be accidently blowing up some King and starting a war."

"Exactly," said Osman, "but all your ships are going to be the Prototype _Hunter Killer_ class, with all the benefits that comes with it."

"_Hunter Killer_," he himself asked, "what exa –"

"I am so glad you asked," interjected the AI, Déjà, "I've been salivating about this thing for the last year."

A display was brought up, the ship resembling a Covenant Carrier class from the war. except instead of purple it was black, and there was no break in its symmetrical design.

"this is a _Hunter Killer, _think all the benefits of the _Stalker_, gave us, Stealth generator, shields, state of the art sensors and the ability to sit around days in low power mode without anyone noticing. Then double the shield strength, add on four plasma projectors, two to each side. A bottom prow mounted Energy Projector, and eight _Phoenix_ Missile silos mounted on its top prow."

"_Phoenix_," murmured the admiral, glancing at Osman.

"Energy Projector," grunted another, as they all examined the various assets of the ship.

"Yep, and it's twice as fast as its predecessor."

"Ah hm, excuse me," Edward interjected, "but I seem like the only one here who doesn't know what a _Phoenix _missile is?"

"Oh sorry," stuttered the AI, her Hardlight face flushed brighter, "The Phoenix missile is a prototype ship to ship strategic armament designed to replace previous missile designs. Its completion two months ago makes use of Republic technology as well as Cove –"

"Just the specifications Déjà," interjected Osman, her face twitching into a smile.

"Oh yes," the AI said, flustered once again, "well the missile is five metres by one metre in length, propelled by three Ion magnetic thins on the end allowing it vastly superior manouvrebility. It is designed to pass through ship shields by sensing the frequency with on board sensors and then adjusting its own shield to match."

A hologram appeared in front of them, of two shields touching each other, and then forming into a single one, a hole appearing inside the area where the two met.

"The hole created from two shields of the same frequency connecting allows the missile to slip in. where upon the missile disengages its shield, engaging a strong fast rotating magnetic field and releasing compressed superheated plasma in its nose to form a drill that is capable of burrowing inside vessel hauls. How far in it drills, and what its target is can be monitored and adjusted in real time by a shipboard AI. Its ordinance is a three metre by one metre compressed superheated plasma that detonates with a fourth of the strength of a Plasma Torpedo."

"So obviously this weapon is set to replace the Archer, Rapier and other missiles," a man on the opposite side of the console said, "those things are going to be a great advantage over in Andromeda."

But another captain was frowning, "though they are more easily stopped than a Plasma Torpedo."

"Yes their strength lies in the ability to disable ships without completely destroying them," retorted the Admiral dryly, "and launching hundreds at the same time will solve most of the problems."

"The Admiral's right," Osman said, nodding, "the missiles, used correctly will probably become our go to weapons on the Boats. They have an inbuilt micro Triple Fusion Reactor as well," she smiled predatorily, "we finally have a decent weapon that doesn't drain our ships powerplants."

"What about the cost of these things," grunted another, "Fusion Reactors, Plasma, Energy Shields, magnetic field generators; these things aren't cheap."

The Admiral smiled, "they'd cost about three times as much as Mjolnir armour, if it we were still relying on pre-war construction technology."

The Admiral smiled over at the man who'd raised the question, "our top production lines can magnetically manipulate molten metal into different alloy configurations. I don't think they'd have a problem with making these."

"The Admiral's right, our production lines are capable of creating there missiles at the same cost as a Archer Missile O'Neill," said Osman, "but we have gone off track."

"Sorry Mam," the one called O'Neill said, not terribly sorry at all.

"no I can appreciate a good academic debate the same as any other person, but as I was saying you're going to be the first to man these vessels," she gestured towards the centre display again, which had taken up the image of the _Hunter Killer _class again, "they they've been in construction for the past year, and we had to rush to integrate a lot of the stuff we found on the Republic ship into their design. Now they have what they call a Hyperdrive, which, while requiring a star chart to navigate can be initiated much quicker than the Slipspace drive, and its completely silent, as long as you have stealth systems activated before you engage it no one will notice you enter systems. But there's a whole score of different things that this technology makes capable."

She paused, bringing up a picture of a microscopic organism, "this is bacta, a micro-organism that when applied mimics the cells of its inhabitant, forming a living version of bio-foam."

"You're kidding," exclaimed one of the Captains, "you're saying if we apply this stuff to a graze it'll form skin."

"yes, a temporary skin, it can form a perfect copy of the cells it attaches itself too, of course we've already prioritized growing colonies of it for distribution around the UNSC," Captain O'Neill whistled, "but it still won't heal burns and I don't recommend applying it to deep wounds."

"Obviously," grunted another Captain, "how the bloody hell didn't we come up with something like this, with all that research into stem cells for organ cloning…"

"Because we just didn't think it was possible," Edward interjected, "no one thought it was possible for a micro-organism to be versatile enough to mimic cells at demand."

"True," the Captain grunted in reply, "so what else have you got for us."

The Hardlight display morphed into another image, "is that a robot?"

"It is, but other in Andromeda they call these things Droids," Osman answered, "there quite common, and about as good as one of our Dumb AI's, they certainly punctured a hole in our Robotic's engineers ego. But we've already started designing our own, these are the first, over their they call them Astrometric droids."

"what do they do then," interjected O'Neill again, "those tin can's look like a puffed up version of my vacuum cleaner."

"they do a lot more than that Captain, these things are extremely capable mechanics and hackers," Osman said, "we've modified ours so they've got Hardlight Projector's poking out of their heads, ang given them a load of other tool upgrades so they can handle repairs inside and _outside_ your vessel."

"Outside," Admiral Keyes interjected, interested.

"Their robots," Osman answered, "and thus vacuum capable. Of course they need a dedicated Dumb AI to work them, but we've modified our Smart and Dumb AI in the last update we sent around to prepare them for potentially hundreds of them all working in the same area. Gave the Smart AI's queen bee status and a local _job _server for the robot AI's."

The Hardlight screen blanked, "now your mission parameters and objectives are included in the files I've sent you, I just wanted you together in the same room so I could give you the send-off myself. And to tell you that communication between Galaxies will be limited, since it takes an hour for a Slipspace message to pass through the Galaxy bridge."

Five days later, Captain Tark was looking through his files on board his _Hunter Killer _class Stealth ship. He had yet to decide on its name, as its first captain he had that honour. But he couldn't decide on a name, despite the Smart AI's insistence on _The Black Pearl_.

Something was definitely off about that AI, picking the avatar of the pre-space movie character Jack Sparrow, or _Captain_ Jack Sparrow as he insisted he be called.

It was on help that Captain O'Neill was insisting he call it _Voyager, _his ship was named _Enterprise. _God knows why, but Captain O'Neill had sent everyone in their twelve ship fleet copies of something called _The Simpsons _and _Star Trek. _

At least the other captains weren't badgering him with names, although they seemed to be a little condescending. But Edward expected that, he was the only one who had little to no combat experience.


End file.
